The Big Apple for Fleet Week - New York City - Our 10th Wedding Anniversary

This past weekend we enjoyed a quick family vacation to New York City. We had a blast! It was Fleet Week and Memorial Day weekend so the city was horribly busy. I honestly had to question if we really were in a recession in North America?

We arrived on Friday afternoon went for an amazing deli lunch at Carnegies Deli and went straight to work looking for a dress for Montana's Grade 8 graduation. I was surprised as Bloomingdales had limited selection and Macy's had nothing! She ended up with a beautiful dress from Bloomingdales in SOHO.

We wandered through SOHO, and then back to the hotel - Sheraton Hotel and Towers at 53rd and 7th, a perfect location as it is right next to the subway and a short walk to Times Square.

We wandered through Times Square that night and I was happy to see the tkts booth and the bleachers and table and chairs they put out for people to sit and enjoy the area. On the Sunday they closed the traffic to the main area of Times Square to traffic. I think this is an AWESOME idea. I love Times Square and think they have done an amazing job of making it a "town square" type concept.

On Saturday morning (our 10th wedding anniversary we made our way to Canal Street. This is a shoppers paradise for knock offs and bargains. We were amazed at the bargains we found for costume jewellery and sunglasses. There were hundreds of people selling off knock off bags, offering to take us through their hidden stores looking for the "perfect" knock off.

I have to say the quality is suffering. I used to buy these bags etc a few years ago, but they don't look as good as they used to.

We ended up in Little Italy and had a nice lunch outside. I would recommend Angelo's, the place we ate this time wasn't so great, but we have always had a nice meal at Angelo's on Mulberry Street.

We made our way back to the hotel, had a rest and off to Times Square to do a bit of shopping and get a Starbucks - How original, drinking Starbucks in New York City!

That night we had booked to go to Swing 46, a jazz supper club in Hells Kitchen. A twitter friend @SarahC1978 had recommended. It was a great night out, and kind of fit in with "Fleet Week". The food was incredible, and they did a swing dance lesson right before the band started playing. It is was fun, but we will need alot more practice if we want to keep the dancing up! The music was great and it was fun to watch the guests dancing away. You could tell that they had lessons!

Sunday we were tired, we had walked for what seemed like forever this weekend! We went back to Carnegie's Deli for Salami and Eggs for breakfast. When we walked out of our hotel the "Times Square Fair" (7th ave between 47th and 57th street) had set up. So we got another hour of bargain shopping. I got to buy several more pashminas. I love pashminas for travelling, they work as a fashion accessory, a scarf when it is cold, and a light blanket while flying!

We got our stuff packed up and checked it into the bell desk and walked up to Central Park. It got warmer and warmer as we walked. By the time we made it to the park it must have been 85 F and muggy. People were enjoying the park and the horses and carriages were out in full force.

We wandered through the park and over to the Apple Store to cool down. We were hungry by this time and didn't know where to eat. "Wait we are in the Apple store, and we have our Iphone's" so we did what the commercials on TV said, downloaded "Urbanspoon" and let the program decide where we would eat. We were in the mood for a hamburger, and the program came back with "Popburger".

It was right around the corner, and very cute. Food was good too! Next was shopping on 5th Ave, well more browsing on 5th anyway. Worked our way to Rockefeller Center and the NBC store.

On our way back to the hotel, on the Avenue of Americas, we ran into a new "Magnolia Bakery". This is the bakery that is featured in "Sex and the City". Usually there is a line down the block and people have been known to wait an hour for the cupcakes. I got excited and insisted that we get one each!. We didn't wait long, and we took them back to the hotel. We sat in the lobby, catching up with our email eating the most incredible cupcakes! The hype was right - they were awesome!

Next we were off to the airport for our trip home :-(.

Thank you so much to Montana and Warren for an awesome 10th wedding anniversary weekend!

Last minute New York values at Expedia.com!